DESCRIPTION:
Menotti's "The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore"

Butler University Chamber Choir 2010
Jordan Academy of Dance

Text:
Oh foolish people who feign to feel
what other men have suffered.
You, not I, are the indifferent killers
of the poet's dreams.
How could I destroy
the pain wrought children of my fancy?
What would my life have been without their faithful and harmonious company?
Unicorn, My youthful foolish Unicorn, please do not hide, come close to me.
And you, my Gorgon, behind whose splendor
I hid the doubts of my midday, you, too, stand by.
And here is my shy and lonely Manticore, who gracefully leads me to my grave.
Farewell. Equally well I loved you all.
Although the world may not suspect it,
all remains intact within the Poet's heart.
Farewell. Not even death I fear as in your arms I die.
Farewell.